Hopefully, if it’s all up to scratch, we will have more pictures tomorrow

 2011 Range Rover Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8

Previous cars :
2003 Range Rover Vogue TD6
1999 Discovery Td5 ES
1995 BMW M5 3.8 6 speed
1992 Range Rover 3.9 Efi Vogue
1992 BMW M5 3.8
1988 BMW 735i SE
1989 Ford Sierra XR4x4 2.9i
1981 Ford Fiesta Supersport

batfink wrote:

I did an HPI check yesterday night and everything showed up fine.

So I went and saw the car today. All very nice, lovely condition throughout and the drive was lovely, no knocks over speed bumps etc. Suspension goes up and down as it should. The engine was cold when I got there and started straight away with no issues. All items work, including the park heater, electric windscreen that's just been replaced after getting cracked.

The only issues are the bits in the pictures.

Both rear arches need a bit of work, no rust anywhere else on the car.

Also when I climbed underneath the engine bay I noticed there was a light coating of oil on the sump. (very light, not enough to be dripping on the drive). I couldn't see any sign of oil leaks looking down from the top of the engine anywhere and didn't see any smoke at startup or duing the drive....any clues ? Is it something to worry about ?

Cheers

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I can't really comment on the oil 'mist', this could just be a small spillage from service time that's dribbled down then blown back. Others with more knowledge than moi will have a better idea.
The rust would worry me slightly, I thought that era of RR weren't too bad, it was either the earlier or later version [like mine] that suffered rot. Mine's a '12 reg & this is what I found when the sill covers were taken off, pretty minimal to be honest. In my view, a car of this stature shouldn't have a single rust spot anywhere....but hey ho, thanks Tata steel Co. If you look at the first photo you can see the arch lip suffers on these girls, mine had just started so it was an easy fix. Lots of us then put a rubber cover over the arch [Freelander 2 rings a bell] this then protects the arch from stone chips. Yours seems to have gone virtually through? I would also like to have a look underneath that sill cover towards the back as there's a jacking point there that is a common rust area, not an easy task asking a seller "do you mind if I dismantle your car for an hour or two?"
I believe you can now get 'arch replacement' panels but this means more money & time being spent. I don't want to put you off this girl, if it's the one you want & you're happy, carry on. I would just be a tad concerned if you got the grinder out on those arches how far the rot has gone & to what area.
Hope I haven't put a downer on your post, it wasn't my intention. Hopefully others will come along with their thoughts, I've been wrong in the past & there's no proof whatsoever that I won't be wrong again pretty soon!

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No downer at all and exactly the feedback I’m after. I was surprised to see the sills like this as nothing had been mentioned about it before I went to see the car.
Like you say I couldn’t get a really good look at it, and I also wondered whether there had been a bit of spraying done on top of the rust to try and make it look better.
That and the oil is making me think a bit more about this. He also says he has no personal receipts for the servicing that he’s done on the car, not even showing something on a bank statement as he “paid cash” for everything he’s bought.

First point is that the initial photos showed suspension parts that were obviously new, but should have included pics of the rust on the rear arches. the seller avoided them - No honesty

Second point, he may well have paid cash for most parts, BUT just because you pay cash DOES NOT automatically mean NO RECEIPTS. Not calling the seller a liar, but this is 2021, no receipts sounds very dodgy.

Third point, Could be wrong, but with that much rust bubbling on the rear arches and very little brown rust showing, I would assume it's been flashed over to try to hide the real story.

If receipts were available and the rust had been declared, then the car priced accordingly I would say buy it, now I would walk away.

Shame as the first photos made it look like a good buy.

Yes I’m inclined to agree with all your points there.

I’m also an “enthusiast” when it comes to my 09 plate BMW motorbike and I have every receipt for things I’ve carried out on it. Also they are prone to paint bubbling on the engine and that would definitely be raised and in a sales photo if I was to ever sell it.

Cheers 👍

Theres probably more rust lurking when you take the sill covers off. I also tend to keep receipts for everything, even 2p clips.

Its £7k for a lot of car, rust or no rust. There's loads of these cars around, crackers do come up for sale, its just a case of waiting for the "one". If the rust bothers you and you're not a fabricator or handy with the sparkly stick, work out how much its going to cost to bring it up to the standard you want. I saw a 1 owner 08 VSE with sub 50k miles for £10995 on AT a few months ago from a dealer.

Yes definitely right that it's a lot of car for £7k, but I'm not into fabricating, welding etc. This car was 2.5 hour drive away so it's not something I can just say I want to pop back and start pulling to bits to try and dig deeper. If it was closer I'd probably also get a trusted local independent to go and take a look to see if he could give a quote to fix the bodywork and find out where the oil is coming from.

I think I'll leave this one and wait for "the one" to come along.

Thanks for the feedback everyone

When I saw the details of the initial post I did think 7k was quite expe dive, especially from a private seller, now after seeing those arches I'd definitely say walk away.

The rust on the arches may just be the surface, once you get those sill covers off there will probably be a lot more underneath. It's just not something I'd be wanting to tackle after spending 7k on a car.

Have you got your eyes on any others?

No haven't got my eyes on anything else right now, but will just keep an eye out there.

..but hey ho, thanks Tata steel Co.

For the record Tata Steel don’t supply that part and never has 😀, same on tail gate not us! Think of a bigger steel manufacturer based in France and Belgium!

We do supply a lot of steel just not on FFRR or RRS! At least externally